8. prevailed not--A and Coptic read, "He prevailed
not." But B and C read as English Version.
neither--A, B, and C read, "not even" (Greek,
"oude"): a climax. Not only did they not prevail, but not
even their place was found any more in heaven. There are four
gradations in the ever deeper downfall of Satan: (1) He is deprived of
his heavenly excellency, though having still access to heaven as man's
accuser, up to Christ's first coming. As heaven was not fully yet
opened to man
(Joh 3:13),
so it was not yet shut against Satan and his demons. The Old Testament
dispensation could not overcome him. (2) From Christ, down to the
millennium, he is judicially cast out of heaven as the accuser of the
elect, and shortly before the millennium loses his power against
Israel, and has sentence of expulsion fully executed on him and his by
Michael. His rage on earth is consequently the greater, his power being
concentrated on it, especially towards the end, when "he knoweth that
he hath but a short time"
(Re 12:12).
(3) He is bound during the millennium
(Re 20:1-3).
(4) After having been loosed for a while, he is cast for ever into the
lake of fire.
JFB.
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